The conditions Samoan children are subjected to at St Paul’s Academy in Tafa'igata are unacceptable and in no way conducive for learning.

How in the world has the Ministry of Education thought that students would be best suited to learning inside a prison facility which is rundown and a danger to the safety of the children and the teachers?

Was the previous administration in their right minds when they came up with this idea to convert the prison without any renovations into a school?

Now the Ministry of Education, Sports, and Culture (M.E.S.C.) is looking to secure funds to renovate a school built at the old Tafa'igata Prison facility. Why are they looking for funds? The safety concern should have been addressed in the budget and allocation made to improve the school.

Pictures of the school show iron grills are still on the windows and the doors are the same ones that had criminals behind them. The fact is that a good facility plays an important role in ensuring the delivery of quality education.

It is a fact that having schools in good conditions is decisive for students to achieve the expected academic results and this opportunity is being denied to those who are actually going to school at St Paul’s Academy.

Last September, the parents of students attending St. Paul's Academy wrote to the government raising concerns about the safety of the facility as a learning institution.

They said St. Paul's Academy needs a facelift.

"First of all, our students are not prisoners. We see them sitting inside the cells used by inmates during school hours and it's disheartening," they said.

The parents are right in expressing their anger. The letter was written almost a year ago and now funds are being looked for. How long until this fund is found and how many more years will students at this school have to wait for until they have access to a good learning environment.

For those who love to read and study, any place can be good to read and learn. They might argue that the space you are in does not matter, that knowledge is immaterial, that the physical context is secondary, and that what is important is to concentrate on what you are reading. 

But if we transfer this reasoning to the reality of educational systems, the evidence is flagrant: having rooms and learning spaces in good conditions is decisive for students to achieve the expected academic results. In other words, the condition of the schools directly impacts the performance of the students. 

The fact is that a good school infrastructure, with renewed spaces, makes it possible for children and youths that live in remote areas to study and, in addition, tends to improve the attendance and interest of students and teachers in learning. For this same reason, investments in school infrastructure have an essential role in solving access problems of students to the school system and to improve their performance.

What are the conditions for a quality school infrastructure? According to the experts, it must at least comply with the following parameters:

Comfort for students, teachers, and administrators: spaces for teachers and students, with an adequate temperature, ventilation, and lighting, with water, electricity, and Internet services, as well as sanitary services and the respective drainage of sewage waters.

Spaces for the development of rehearsals and practices such as libraries, and natural sciences, information technology, physics and chemistry labs. 

Spaces for the development of talents and entertainment, sports, and culture.

According to UNESCO, several studies have found that the physical condition of school buildings positively affects school completion and cycle completion rates, and increases registration. For example, in Peru the World Bank found that investments in school facilities had a very significant positive effect on students' attendance rates.

Evidence in Bangladesh, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Peru, and Uganda indicates that teachers in schools with good infrastructure have, on average, 10 per cent less absenteeism than teachers in schools with deficient infrastructure. In fact, the study found that infrastructure had a greater effect reducing absenteeism than teacher salaries or the effect of the administrative tolerance for absences.

Studies carried out in the United States, such as the one conducted by 21st Century School Fund in 2010, found positive results which are statistically significant between school infrastructure and standardised tests to measure learning processes in many parts of the country. With lower student socio-economic levels, the results were higher. 

Evidence indicates that there is a direct relationship between school infrastructure and educational performance, and that investments in educational infrastructure contribute to improve the quality of education and the economic performance of countries.